Beyond Things, "Our Call Outs"

Bloomington indie-folk band Beyond Things make good on the promise of their name, exploring metaphysical questions in well-phrased and provocative ways, like how anyone could consider themselves a "self-contained unit" - "Unable to photosynthesize and you think you're alone? You can't even breathe on your own" - and the space that separates you and me - "It's just skin that holds the insides in and it's just skin that keeps the outsides out." And they make good on the promise of their pedigree, picking up from where some band members left off with defunct Secretly Canadian band The Panoply Academy Glee Club and plenty of contemporary bands from the mid to late '90s. Hannah Jones' violin gives several tracks a chamber-music lyricism (both classical and modernist) while Darren Some-eers-gleen sincerely poses gadfly-esque questions in a distinctive, high-pitched, taut croon. While most tracks are orchestrated in a somewhat sparse freak-folk style (a little mandolin here, some keyboard there), the opener "Our Shut Eye" shows how much the band can do with only a drum beat and a simple lyric. Nourishing, quietly experimental stuff.

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Bio:Scott Shoger staggered up to NUVO's door one summer afternoon, a little drunk, poor and crazy-haired, muttering about future Mayor Ballard. He was taken in, hosed down, given NUVO-emblazoned clothes to wear and allowed to work in exchange for food and bylines. Refusing to leave the premises, he was hired on as...Scott Shoger staggered up to NUVO's door one summer afternoon, a little drunk, poor and crazy-haired, muttering about future Mayor Ballard. He was taken in, hosed down, given NUVO-emblazoned clothes to wear and allowed to work in exchange for food and bylines. Refusing to leave the premises, he was hired on as music editor in 2008, and later switched sections (but not desks) to take on the job of Arts/Film Editor. He likes long walks through long cities, falafel, Jean-Luc Godard (except with respect to his un-nuanced anti-Zionism) and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, among other things and people. He is not fond of Peeps, Nickelback or Glenn Beck.more